Do you miss your Childhood?

Just this new commercial "Child of the 90s". Boy does time go by fast or what. Now that I am all grown up, it seems the best times in life were most from my childhood. It would be pretty awesome to take a time machine and go back to the past and see yourself from the outside in. One thing for sure, life was so simple and innocent back then.

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I think this could quite possibly be the hardest question I've had to answer in a very long time. On one hand, I wish I could go back to my childhood, minus all the control freak crap from my parents, and only if I could take with me, the knowledge I've gained so far. Things like really knowing for sure that dropping out of high school could quite possibly ruin my life... and hanging out with 'that' crowd is a bad idea... but for the most part, my childhood was pretty happy. When I watched that commercial, I was only part way reminded of my childhood, and partial of my kids, who are now all adults, and were children of the 90's. Since I was only an adult by one day when I gave birth to my oldest child, I feel like I got to have a second childhood with my kids. I would love to be able to go back in time to the day my daughter was born, just so I could relive hers and my son's. There are so many things I would do differently just to make theirs even better.

There are several sci fi stories out there about people wanting to go back and change something in their own life or history with the result that no matter how hard they tried, the relevant outcomes remained unchanged. For example (this is made up), a guy goes back to save his mother from being murdered by his abusive father on this one day, so he drums up some reason for his mother not to be home that day, but she's killed in a car accident. Maybe the theme is that nature is so constructed to avoid the so-called "grandfather paradox."

The Final Destination series of teen horror flicks are, similarly, based on the idea that ultimately you can't escape your fate, and if you defeat it at some junction, nature itself (in the form of an almost-personified Death) will eventually have to set things aright.

Fascinating question. I had a childhood that was so happy I wrote a book about it ("97th Street"). But there were also sad and unhappy interludes, like having to go to school. I am now 77 and I truly believe that this is, overall, the happiest time of my life.

Or at least it is the most contented. I no longer have many instances of the kind of joy I experienced at various times in my earlier life. But, for me, stress-free contentment is the ultimate objective.

I disagree, though, that "life was so simple and innocent back then." I no longer hide under a desk, for instance, for fear that an atomic bomb will land in my neighborhood. I no longer avoid public pools because of polio. I no longer live in a neighborhood where black people and white people glared at each other on the street. I no longer have to stay indoors to avoid choking on thick, brown, smog. Those things may have been "simple," but I sure don't miss them.

I no longer hide under a desk, for instance, for fear that an atomic bomb will land in my neighborhood.

The dissolution of the USSR and the end of the cold war has, many believe, had the effect of making the world a more dangerous place. The USSR and USA, despite the tension, did seem to exist in a state of stasis due to the threat of mutual annihilation. However, the new state of Russia has not been able to keep its fissionable material under the same degree of control.

As this free material makes its way to who knows where, while the possibility of a full on nuclear exchange is less, the risk of it being used for terror makes the possibility of a nuclear event more likely.

A nuclear delivery system for a major device can be as simple as a freighter pulling into New York or L.A.'s harbor. Suitcase bombs can kill thousands or 10's of thousands. Imagine one being smuggled into the stadium where a Super Bowl is being held.